The Big Picture

Two weekends ago marked a big event in Campus Crusade's history.

A lot of what I do is mainly involved only with the school. However, Campus Crusade for Christ is my support mission, so I am also a part of that community. I attend different staff get-togethers. Each month I enjoy a nice fellowship with the women staff of Crusade.

Recently, I got a much bigger vision of what Crusade does in Budapest. Budapest holds the Eastern European office headquarters of Campus Crusade. Larry Thompson has been the director of Easter Europe since 1992.

The vision for Eastern Europe is to raise national leaders. The goal is to staff people who are native to countries like Poland, Hungary, Romania, etc. In essence, the need for American missionaries is to be fazed out and nationals brought in. It happened this year.

Larry Thompson has left the role of area director. We had a good-bye celebration that commemorated many of his achievements in Eastern Europe. He and his wife started serving while communism existed. We heard stories from the Thompsons and other missionaries about what life was like as a missionary under communism. The night included interviews, videos, stories, and songs about how Larry became the director and events that occurred within Crusade under his watch. As a new staff member, I was overwhelmed at the huge history Crusade has had in Europe.

The day after Larry's good-bye celebration, Crusade dedicated the new director. This switch is very significant as the new director is from Poland. His name is Marek Wyrzykowski. God has raised this laborer along with many other new staff members from various countries in Eastern Europe. It is awesome to see people who aren't Amercians at Crusade events. Americans aren't the only ones who can be Christians.

These changes are so significant that several of the "higher-ups" flew in. Vonette Bright flew to Hungary for this occasion. She and her husband Bill were the founders of Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951. Bill has passed away, but Vonette wouldn't let her old age stop her from missing this event! She was gracious to pose for pictures and spoke during the event.

The Lord's work was truly glorified during this celebration.